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Manuscript Description
London, British Library, Cotton Caligula A.XI
 
Title:Piers Plowman, ABC hybrid
Author:Langland
Contents:Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle to Henry III (ff3-168v), Piers Plowman ABC Splice (ff170-286), Latin vita monachorum per sanctum Aldellimum (ff287-288v) Each originally separate.
Language:English and Latin
Date Range:15th century
Scribal Hands:
Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms.
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Dialect:LP : N/A; County : London/N Gloucs
Material:Parchment
No of Folios:2 paper flyleaves, one with BL list of publications attached to it + 1 parchment flyleaf with 17-18th c. list of contents on recto + text blocks 1-168 + 169 single parchment leaf with Latin verse text on verso in hand of 14th c + 170-286 + 287-88 + 2 paper flyleaves.
Pagination:Older ink in upper outer rectos foliates 1-280 not counting flyleaves or the blanks; crossed through; newer 19-20th c. foliation below it counts all except flyleaves at back, 1-288.
Quiring:8s
Signatures:Few signatures survive cropping, showing originally separate booklet for Piers (hands of separate parts are different anyway), tops of 'k' 'i' to 'iiij' on ff242-245; 'm' 'i' on f258: in 'k' quire all in red, in 'm' quire the letter in red and roman in black.
Catchwords:No catchwords, though there is ruling for them.
Page Size:222 x 158
Frame:(Piers booklet) 4 x vertical enclosing text column and a very narrow column in outer margin (for passus numbers never completed?; some glosses toward outer edge beside these, not in the narrow column); 6 x horizontal two above and below a single line in upper margin (for RT never completed?) one each above and below text, two enclosing a single line in lower margin (for catchwords though on every page, not just where catchwords; ruled within, fine grey ink lines, pricking survives at extreme outer edges some folios.
Writing Space:(Piers booklet) 148 x 122'ruled for, lines often shorter
Incipits and Explicits:At end on f284r, 'Explicit hic opus hoc'.
Marginal Headings:Passus headings by scribe in slightly more formal script, same ink as text, and in outer margins gloss-like notes, eg f188 has 'Passus quintus de visione' taking up a line of ruled text above the blue initial line, and two lines below in right margin 'hic primo eui/gilauit / petrus'. Latin lines in same script and ink as rest, except slightly more formal as the headings.
Title by Scribe:On f2 (first parchment), 17-18th c. hand writes contents for volume including 'Pierce Plougheman' and same hand writes top margin f170 'Pierce Ploughman'.
Flourished Initials:(Piers booklet) f170 10-line blue initial 'I' with red flourishing; thereafter 2-line blue initials with red flourishing forming foliage pattern within and postage stamp around, extenders and tendrils as above.
Other Names (not owners):Thomas Allen bottom margin f3 in note about purchased from, probably by one of Cotton's librarians.
Miscellaneous Info:One scribe in Piers.
Further Information:Cotton catalogue.
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP